Electrical lighting panelboard enclosures generally include a plurality of molded case circuit breakers connected with the electric panelboard branch straps in a so-called "double branch" arrangement whereby a pair of opposingly-facing circuit breakers are connected to the same branch strap. The use of double branch circuit breaker arrangements within lighting panelboards is described, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,667,268 and 4,783,718. The circuit breakers are supported upon a plastic saddle configuration that includes integrally-formed circuit breaker hooks for ease in attachment of the circuit breaker to the branch strap along with integrally-formed insulating baffles to insure electrical isolation between the separate phases of a multi-phase electrical distribution circuit. The arrangement of parallel columns of double branch circuit breakers requires a panelboard enclosure of sufficient width to accommodate the resulting double width of the circuit breakers.
When a so-called "split neutral" arrangement such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,269, wherein a pair of neutral bus bar conductors are arranged outboard the double column of circuit breakers on the circuit breaker support saddle, additional space must be provided within the lighting panelboard enclosure to accommodate the increased width of the corresponding neutral bus bar conductors.
In certain OEM applications, where the electrical equipment manufacturer provides supplemental electrical equipment alongside the panelboard enclosure, the circuit breakers are arranged in a compact single column array with each circuit breaker electrically connected to a separate branch strap on the circuit breaker insulative support within the lighting panelboard enclosure and with a single neutral bus bar positioned at the line end of the circuit breaker insulative support rather than on the sides. Accordingly, it would be economically advantageous to use common components within both double branch and single branch circuit breaker insulative supports.
The instant invention proposes a single branch circuit breaker insulative support for compact lighting panelboard enclosures that employs slightly modified components from double branch circuit breaker insulative supports with the modified components arranged in a correspondingly compact configuration.